Kendall is erupting her two front teeth. She already has her lower front teeth and her lateral incisors, which looks like she’s fanged. I think that these new top teeth will balance out her look. Talon is erupting one of her top front teeth, so she has three in total, including her two lower teeth. We’ve never had a baby who had three teeth.
Both are pulling themselves up to standing. Kendall is attempting to cruise along coffee tables and will take several steps if I put her hands in mine and walk. The babies take turns going to work with me. Several of my students’ houses have wall mirrors that keep the babies busy while I teach piano. The girls gaze at themselves and try to figure out why Mommy is here AND here.
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We listen to fairy tales on Storynory. One of Taylor’s favorites is Cinderella. She has a castle and lots of princes and princesses. She lines them in pairs so they can dance at the ball.
She wants all the boys to line up in front of the girls. That’s why Prince is trying to kiss the King’s head instead of Cinderella’s hand.
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As part of our home schooling, we listen to tales from Homer’s Odyssey and Robin Hood. We used to do a lot of journaling, handwriting, and workbook mathematics, but that was wearing me out. Ty found it fun. But Kyle didn’t. So I started a more laid back approach to schooling. Instead of reciting (and not understanding) math facts, the boys and I talk about what a number looks like. For example, One is its self. One is unique. There is only one of Ty, of Kyle, of Mommy. Two is two ones. Two can make a straight line if you connect the two points. Two can be opposites and pairs. Night and Day, Up and Down. Three looks like a triangle. Earth, sky, and sea. Beginning, middle, and end. Three is two and one, one and two, or one and one and one. Four is a square. Frogs, lizards, and lions have four legs. Four is two twos or one and three, and so on and so forth. We do this for twenty minutes or until Kyle gets tired of talking about numbers.
Ty tends to look at the wall clock when we get to the higher numbers, seven or so. I tell him to look at the soldiers that we are using as math manipulatives. He has a good sense of numbers as numerals but not numbers as a group. He knows that 3 + 4 = 7. But if I ask him to finish the statement “Seven is three and…” he glances to the clock for help. Next week, we’ll draw the numbers as dots or lines in groups.
Although we don’t do much formal study of history or science, the children are getting plenty of it from the stories that we read and hear (Old Testament, mythology, Presidential biographies) and from my stating the obvious when we are outside, “The sun is not so far south. The birds are building their nests. It’s not cold anymore. What a windy day! The diapers took only two hours to dry in the sunshine. Must be spring.”
I’m sure you must think, What a slacker. Making excuses for not formerly schooling her children. They are learning valuable life skills that I didn’t have at their ages. Ty can tell a teaspoon from a tablespoon. Kyle asks me to patch up his torn clothes. Taylor learns teamwork by handing me the wet laundry to wring, which she first attempts to wring with her own hands.
There are children who believe that bread come from the store. There is no excuse for that.
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A few weeks ago, I was inspired to make a kite. It was difficult. I made two and neither flew. Dad wanted to go kite flying, so he bought a kite. We all went to fly the kite at a nearby park on a Wednesday (was it Wednesday?) at lunchtime. This whole time, I’m thinking we are poor, eating poor people food, and wearing patched up clothing made from old worn out clothing. But the contrary is true. We are rich! We were flying kites while the city around us is chasing the dollar. Our children were chasing the kite’s shadow while the school children across the street were running laps in Phys. Ed.
Dad bought two more kites and took the three older children to the park on Saturday morning. The babies were asleep, so I got a lot of cleaning done. The next day, we went to a birthday party at a park. Maybe I just have bad kite karma because I tried flying the kite, and it just jerked and crashed to the ground.
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So this party that we attended… One of our friends has a little girl who was turning six. Back when I thought we were poor, we never showed up with a gift. Hello, we have five kids and no jobs. But I had some resources to get fabric, and Dad thought it’d be a good idea to make this little girl a dress. Ty picked out the fabric, and it took me a week to make it. We packaged it in a brown paper bag and decorated the package using my scrapbooking supplies. The little girl wasn’t too thrilled about a brown package after seeing the plethora of Winnie the Pooh gift bags and Barbie wrapping paper. But the grown-ups at the party were all impressed by the creativity. A few moms told the girl to save that paper because it’s unique. Not very unique, somewhat unique, nor moderately unique. One is unique.
